Copy-holder



. COPY HOLDER.

(No Model.)

Patented July 16', 1895 Fries.

ATENT ARTHUR B. REID, or omoAco', ILLINOIS.

COPY-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 542,809, dated July 16, 1895. Application filed October 29,1894. i 1}l' ,527,163- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, ARTHUR B. REID, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Copy-Holders, of which the following is a specification.

I have designed my improved device, primarily, as a copy-holder for use in holding copy in type-writing hence my selection of the foregoing title. It is also useful, however, for holding or filing papers and letters, and I desire to be understood as intending-it for such purposes.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective View of my improved device, showing the preferred form thereof. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section of the same, taken at the line 2 on Fig. 3 andviewed in the direction of the arrow, illustrating by a dotted representation the relative positions of the parts when operated to open the jaws preparatory to inserting the matter to be held; and Fig. 3, a view in rear elevation.

My primary object is to provide a holder for copy, letters, and other papers, having a flat bed, normally supported in use in a position of convenient inclination by legs permanently connected pivotally with the bed and terminating at their ends, which engage the bed in a spring jaw or jaws overlapping the upper edge of the bed. The legs rest at their lower ends, where they should be joined, on the table or other object on which the device is supported in use, and occupy an upright or somewhat inclined position, and the bed extends obliquely downward from its engagement at its edge with the upper ends of the legs, whereby pressure exerted on the bed opens the jaw against the spring-tension of the latter to permit the insertion between the bed and jaw of the matter to be held.

A is the bed, which I provide in the form of a thin wooden board, suitably polished and of oblong rectangular shape. -On one edge of the bed is secured a rod r, upon which are pivotally fastened, near its opposite ends, the legs B, terminating in jaws B, which overlap the edge of the bed A and are afforded a tendency to bear at their extremities yieldingly against itsupper surface by springs q, coiled about the rod r and confined at their ends,

respectively, between the bed and the legs. I prefer to form the legs and jaws all out of a single piece of adequately stiff wire bent into the rectangular shape illustrated, wherebythe leg portions are joined at their lower extremities by the cross-piece t, (which renders them practically one leg,)- and are coiled loosely about the rod 4", as shown at no, and thence bent to form the jaws, which, however, may also be connected by a cross piece, (not shown, but like the cross-piece t.) The bed A is thus normally supported somewhat in the manner of an easel, and by pressing downward on the bed with sufficient force to overcome the spring-resistance of the jaws, using the lower endsof the legs as a fulcrum, they will'be turned backward, thereby similarly turning the jaws on their pivots 00, the bed meantime sliding, at its edge resting on the table or support, slightly forward. On releasing the pressure, after inserting the matter 0 to be held, the force of the springs q return the parts to their normal relative positions, in which the jaws clamp the inserted matter.

To render the device better suited for use as a letter-file, the legs B should be relatively shorter than representedcut off, say, at c,

Fig. 2.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a copy-holder, the combination of a bed and a spring-controlled supporting legpermanently connected pivotally with the bed at one end and extending thence downward to bear on the support for the device and sustain the bed resiliently in inclined position,

tion, a bed A having a rod 0* fastened to it at clamping-jaws B, and a spring resiliently one edge and means for sustaining the bed Jontrolling the parts, substantially as del'esiliently in inclined position and clamping" scribed.

the matter to be held, comprising a single ARTHUR B. REID; piece of wire bent to form legs B and coiled v In presence of-- about the rod r and thence extended to over- M. J. FROST,

lap the adjacent edge of the bed and form J. II. LEE. 

